Care Home manager guilty of manslaughter

By Nicola Maxey

Former care home boss, 44 year old Rachel Baker, has been found guilty of the manslaughter of one of her residents in Somerset, and acquitted of another charge of manslaughter.

Baker was accused of murdering Frances Hay and Lucy Cox at Parkfields Residential Care Home in Butleigh, Somerset.
She was cleared of the murder charges and an attempted murder charge involving Mrs Hay by a jury at Bristol Crown Court.

But the panel found her guilty of the manslaughter of Lucy Cox. She was acquitted of the manslaughter of Frances Hay.

Baker, of Boundary Way, Glastonbury, committed the offence while she was abusing controlled drugs. The registered nurse has admitted feeding her addiction by stealing prescribed and controlled substances from residents at the care home. She admitted 10 counts of possessing class A and C drugs, and one of perverting the course of justice.

The jury retired to consider its verdicts on March 26 and resumed its deliberations on Wednesday after a six-day break over Easter. Opening the case back in January, prosecutor David Fisher said ``Rachel Baker was, by her own admission, regularly taking prescribed drugs, which must have had a substantial effect on her character and conduct. She, for a variety of bizarre
and perverted reasons, may have had a desire to control the terminal destiny of some of her residents.''
In her evidence, Baker accepted taking the medication amid the ``stress, pain and emotional turmoil'' of running the home. But she denied that her ``diverting'' of residents' drugs ever affected their care. Baker also revealed feeling ``useless'' after the death of one resident, Fred Green.